Sunday, October 19, 2008

The Harvest Festival

I can't believe it's taken over a week for me to come round to writing about this experience, but... Better late than never, I suppose.I honestly wasn't sure what to expect before going to this event. After experiencing it, I'm not even sure what to say about it, other than it was a lot of fun. We went with friends and didn't venture out of our cabin all that much, maybe once a day for an hour or so. Everyone we did meet was very friendly, and there were no problems that I was aware of - despite the fact that there were no police and no real "rules" other than looking out for each other and the property. Go figure - freedom could be a real possibility for us without any need for "the Man" making rules for us to follow. The vibes at the campground were really good; I felt no animosity from or towards anyone. Folks were just hanging out, partying, enjoying the freedom of being in a secluded area where no one is judged for their choice to smoke marijuana or explore psychedelics and spirituality. Talented artists sold their wares, the food was excellent, and the entertainment we managed to catch was fantastic as well.The Harvest Fest, in essence, is like a small community of open minded folks who get together for 4 days a year to get away from the fascist state we are all in the midst of. I didn't learn anything new here, to be honest - other than a renewed hope that as much as shit may hit the fan within our political circles, it won't really affect us for anything but the better. So long as people can understand that compassion, love, and sharing should be our base for everything we do, we can accomplish anything we want. We can truly be free, because we have ourselves and each other. We don't need a "Daddy Figure" telling us what we can and can't do - all we need is to understand that people are people, and as long as we don't abuse, kill, or steal from one another, we could be just fine. We plan to attend this event annually from now on. Next year, we'll be more participative than we were this year. We didn't know what to expect, so we brought the bare minimum of what we would need; but next year we plan to bring our creativity along for the ride so that we can be part of the event and not just spectators there for the party. I had planned to talk to people about activism and promote some of the projects myself and my friends are involved with, but the weekend turned into a vacation the moment we arrived. I do wish I had met and talked to more people, but shyness really overcame me and I chose to stick to hanging with the people I was there with. Next year will be different. We plan on renting a large cabin where anyone can come in and be entertained and enlightened. We want to participate and bring something fun and informative to the table instead of just relaxing.It was a lot of fun and we look forward to future Harvest Fests.